Mayor strikes back on LGBT 'travel advisory'

Decorated Iraq veteran Eric Alva leaves the dais after speaking in favor of changes to the city's anti-bias policy.

Photo By JERRY LARA/File Photo

Eric Alva – Born in San Antonio, Alva was the first service member injured in the Iraq War. Alva was a vocal critic of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Photo By ERIC GAY/AP

Staff Sgt. Eric Alva waves to delegates after he was honnored during the GOP state convention in San Antonio, Friday, June 4, 2004. Alva lost his leg after stepping on a land mine in Iraq.

Photo By AP

FILE - In this Dec. 22, 2010 file photo, Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, center, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, Commander Zoe Dunning, and others, watch as President Barack Obama signs the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, at the Interior Department in Washington. With a formal dinner for the few, President Barack Obama is paying tribute to the many. The president who opposed the Iraq war from its outset is thanking those who fought its battles by inviting in a small cross section of the million-plus who served there over the past nine years. The faces of war are sketched in the 200 veterans and their guests attending Wednesday’s dinner. They come from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, and span generations, gender and all five branches of the military.

Mayor Julián Castro fired back Tuesday at a “travel alert” issued by a statewide advocacy group that warns lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travelers to avoid San Antonio until the city takes action on a hotly debated nondiscrimination ordinance.

The city has a history of welcoming all visitors, and is set to vote in two weeks on a nondiscrimination ordinance that will provide protections for the LGBT community, Castro said, aiming his ire at a travel alert issued by GetEQUAL Texas.

“This advisory unnecessarily stands to hurt the city. The fact is that San Antonio always has been and remains welcoming to all,” he said.

Castro noted his record of supporting gay marriage and the city's 2011 adoption of benefits for domestic partners of city employees. The city also added sexual orientation to the categories of protections for its employees in 2007, he said.

Chad Reumann, San Antonio-area representative with the Human Rights Campaign, also disagreed with the alert, even though his group and GetEQUAL Texas have a similar mission of promoting equality.

“We welcome all LGBT travelers, and would like them to know that San Antonio is a friendly city and a great place to visit,” Reumann said.

A media advisory issued by GetEQUAL Texas quoted Jay Morris, the group's co-lead organizer, saying he has faced discrimination several times in San Antonio. The advisory claimed city officials have “repeatedly delayed a vote on the ordinance,” and that Councilwoman Elisa Chan and others have “been very vocal in their opposition.”

Chan, who was secretly recorded at a staff meeting expressing negative views on gay and transgender people, said at a news conference Tuesday that she has not taken a position on the ordinance, though the recording captured a discussion on how to defeat it.

The travel alert expires Sept. 6, a day after the City Council will vote, but it could be renewed, the advisory said.

Castro said the timeline for adoption of the ordinance has not been significantly delayed. “This schedule has been in place for quite a while now, and we're set to vote on Sept. 5.”

The San Antonio Express-News reported at the time that three rangers physically abused the tourists and used slurs against them. Although the rangers were cleared of wrongdoing in an internal investigation, one of them quit after admitting to sending a fake email under a different name, disputing the tourists' version of events.

The latest travel alert is “strangely timed,” but may be connected to the ordinance, which is similar to others adopted elsewhere, Stone said.

“In many cities, when it comes to council passage, the debates are very loud and very contentious,” she said. “But what happens is that when the ordinance passes, it tends to be somewhat anticlimactic.”

In the first half of 2013, the San Antonio Police Department documented six hate crimes — offenses “against persons, property, or society” with motives involving “race, religion, ethnic/national origin, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation.” According to FBI hate-crime statistics, Texas ranked 10th among U.S. states in the number of reported hate crimes in 2011, with 152 incidents. That year, San Antonio had two reported hate crimes, both linked to sexual orientation. “As the No. 1 leisure destination in Texas, we welcome millions on an annual basis, and the safety and comfort of all our visitors is a top priority for us,” said Casandra Matej, executive director of the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Eric Alva, a San Antonian and openly gay veteran of the Iraq war, said he also believes the travel alert is misguided.

“A lot of people all over the country will just shrug their shoulders. They'll come to San Antonio and see the Alamo,” said Alva, who lost his leg when he was wounded in 2003.

Alva, who has traveled frequently and made national news after being booed by opponents of the ordinance at a council hearing last week, said San Antonio lags behind San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Dallas and Austin as cities that are friendly to the LGBT community. But he said the city is making progress with leaders such as Mayor Julián Castro and Police Chief William McManus, who both have marched in the local gay pride parade. San Antonio also has once of the highest ratios, 22 percent, of same-sex couples raising children among U.S. metro areas with populations exceeding 1 million, according to a recent report by the University of California's Williams Institute.

“We're not as open here,” Alva said. “But the community is realizing that San Antonio is a growing city, and a place where same-sex adoption is prevalent.”

“I believe there will be more people holding hands, showing public displays of affection as the city moves forward,” he said. “I just don't understand why people don't see life, and the kind spirit and goodwill we should be showing one another.”